Marlfox by Brian Jacques
Reviewed by Collin
Every one was a child one point or another. You were told stories by your parents and grandparents. Well imagine you were told about magical creatures call marl foxes, which could disappear. Well now imagine those stories were true and marl foxes were coming with an army of water rats, threatening to take your home and kill your loved ones. Do you think you would have the courage, the bravery, the warrior like instinct that the characters in this book did?

This book begins with three different groups the Swifteye family, a traveling and performing group, and a band of shrews. Each group was visited by two marl foxes each and are warned that they’d be back in greater numbers. They all heeded the warning and knew that they had to go to Redwall to warn the people there and to seek protection. Fortunately they all made it there safe, but unfortunately they were able to lure a dibbun named Dwopple. In order to get him back they would have to trade all trinkets or items of value with them. They did and wrapped it all in cloth. They also knew it would come to battle so they devised a plan. They would hide weapons also wrapped in silk. They were right it did come to battle and they were able to save the dibbun, but at a price. Two foxes and two rats sneak in and slay Nutwing, an owl, and knocked out Song, Dippler, and Dann three of the four main characters. In order to restore their honor they set out on a quest to find the stolen tapestry. There is a lot of detail from here to the start of the end so I’ll just say they gain a friend named Burble, a water vole, and go through a whole bunch of hard enduring obstacles. Toward the end of the book one of the Song gains a friend named the Mighty Megraw an osprey and finds her long lost grandfather with a band of hedgehog. All of these people have a score to settle with the marl foxes on their wicked island in the sacred lake. They plan an attack to overpower the marl foxes on their island that involves a two pronged attack were they release the slaves to help them. You’ll have to keep reading to find out the end of this book of friendship, honor, betrayal, and other attributes to find out the extraordinary ending.

I would strongly recommend this book to anybody that likes fantasy adventure or other genres related to that. I would also recommend this book to anybody that loved the other Redwall series. Personally the thing I liked the best about this book is the journey they take to get to their destination. I think the ending was a little bit weak but still good to the fullest extent. I also like how the author writes his books, specifically how he switches back and forth from different points of view and different places. It is a little hard to follow but I think most strong readers would be able to follow.